William Hodgins Biggar was the namesake of Biggar, Saskatchewan. According to Heather Robertson, during the summer of 1908, Biggar was taveling with other board of directors such as Charles Melville Hays and William Wainwright.in a private Grand Trunk Pacific Railway car across the western provinces. Hays was President of the GTPR, Biggar the solicitor and Wainwright the head accountant. They had named various geographical features sighted from the rail car window to be the future stations and divisional points. The town of Melville which became a divisional point is named after Hays, and the following divisional point was named by Biggar and the next named by Wainwright. At this time the feature chosen by Biggar was a large alkali slough 60miles (97km) west of the city of Saskatoon. When construction began of the first buildings at the Biggar divisional point they were on the south side of the tracks near the slough but were soon re-located to the hill on the north side which provided better drainage.

Biggar was a lawyer who was called to the Bar in 1880 and entered the legal profession with Mr. John Bell who was solicitor of the GTR railway. He had been elected Mayor of Belleville, Ontario, as well as Member of Provincial Parliament for the West Hastings area of Ontario. He finally ended up as director of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, and vice-president and General Counsel of the Grand Trunk Railway. Working on behalf of the GTP and GTPR he often discussed their matters with then Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier. It is reported that Biggar enjoyed billiards, bowling, angling, racing his yacht, the "Lolanthe",

Biggar was born to James Lyons Biggar (1824 ON - 1879) and Isabella Hodgins (1825 Dublin, Ireland-c1881) on September 19, 1852 in Carrying Place, Upper Canada. Carrying Place was a portage between Quinte Bay and Lake Ontario. Biggar had a family of five children.


In the 1881 census, Biggar is the head of a household with 7 of his 9 siblings living in Belleville, Hastings West, Ontario.
William H. Biggar age 28 Lawyer
James L Biggar age 25
George C Biggar age 14
Harry P. Biggar age 8
Francis C Biggar age 30
Emma Biggar age 17
Maria Biggar age 11

The Biggar family appears on the 1901 Belleville City, Hastings, Ontario census as
William H Biggar, Head b. Sept 19, 1852 Age 48
Mary L Biggar, Wife b. Jan 19, 1861 Age 30
Winchester H. Biggar b. Sep 23, 1985 Age 5
Louis H Biggar b Dec. 12, 1898 Age 2
Edith Tugnel domestic
Lizzie Booth domestic
Georgie Cleaver domestic

And the family shows up again on the 1911 St. Antoine ward Montreal city, Quebec census as
William H Biggar, Head b. Sept 19, 1952 Age 48
Mary L Biggar, Wife b. Jan 19, 1861 Age 41
Winchester H. Biggar b. Sep 23, 1985 Age 15
Louis H Biggar b Dec. 12, 1898 Age 12
Marchaine Biggar (f) b. Aug 1903 age 7
Horace J Biggar b. Mar 1908 age 3
Lucy Hami domestic
Maude Paney domestic
William Gudge Employee

The township of Biggar in Nipissing District, Ontario was named in the honour of Biggar's father, James Lyon. According to family genealogist, Arnold Krause, Biggar's paternal grandparents were Charles Biggar and Camelia Coltman and maternal grandparents were William Hodgins (1786-1840) and Frances Doyle.. It was the parents of Charles Biggar that emigrated from Biggar, Lanark, Scotland. Copeland documented that historically, Biggar's ancestors were Herbert Biggar (28th December 1600-c1697), Laird of Barbine and Nethergloly, and his wife Janet Maxwell (1638-1698), from Balterson, Holywood, Dumfriesshire, Scotland According to Tammy, Biggar family historian; Herbert Biggar's parents were Herbert Biggar (c1560-1638) of Barbuie who was married to Janet McKinnay (?-c1637) of Captainton, Scotland.

Bibliography

Copeland, John Morison. "The trail of the swinging lanterns: a racy, railroading review of transportation matters, methods and men"". published online by Internet Archive. doi:2009-10-27. http://www.archive.org/stream/trailofswingingl00copeuoft/trailofswingingl00copeuoft_djvu.txt. Retrieved 2009-10-27.


Gardiner, Herbert Fairbairn (1899). "Nothing but Names" (Digitised online by Our Roots Nos Racines). G Morang. p. 504-505. http://www.ourroots.ca/e/toc.aspx?id=819. Retrieved 2009-10-27.

"Item Display - Census of Canada, 1881 Library and Archives Canada". 1881 Census, Belleville, Hastings Co., ON, Dist. 121C, Div. 3, p 7, house #52, age 28. Government of Canada. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1881/001049-119.01-e.php?id=ON_3226992&interval=20&PHPSESSID=unm5d2ejqkqvgca54jomrvgof3. Retrieved 2009-10-27.


James Lyon Biggar". history version 315928806. Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. September 24, 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Lyons_Biggar&oldid=315928806. Retrieved 2009-10-27.


Krause, Arnold E (2009-10-25). "Forest of Trees: Loyalist Descendants of New Brunswick and Maine "Plus Others"". Rootsweb World Connect Project. http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=aek740a&id=I019194. Retrieved 2009-10-27.


Leonard, Frank (1996). [0774805528, 9780774805520 A Thousand Blunders: The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and Northern British]. UBC Press. 0774805528, 9780774805520. Retrieved 2009-10-27.

Lyons, P. "Automated Genealogy 1901 Census Transcription Project". District 72 ON Hastings West Bellevill City A-3 Page 16. Transcribed from the National Archives site by Automated Genealogy. http://automatedgenealogy.com/census/View.jsp?id=54496&highlight=23&desc=1901+Census+of+Canada+page+containing+William+H+Biggar. Retrieved 2009-10-27.

Parker, Cindy. "Automated Genealogy 1911 Census Transcription Project". Quebec Montreal St. Antoine 49 St Antoine Ward Page 9. Transcribed from the National Archives site by Automated Genealogy. http://automatedgenealogy.com/census11/View.jsp?id=117696&highlight=50&desc=1911+Census+of+Canada+page+containing+William+%3F+Biggor. Retrieved 2009-10-27.


Robertson, Heather (1973) (Transcribed from Google Books). Grass Roots. Toronto: James Lorimer & co. ISBN 0888620993, 9780888620996. http://books.google.ca/books?id=PXnMbTUD2SsC&pg=RA1-PA286&lpg=RA1-PA286&dq=William+Hodgins+Biggar&source=bl&ots=EojVlq3Sbo&sig=M0brLz-rvsIGy7Qvb6niIQ2Aqfs&hl=en&ei=kznnSsaeGZXaNfe7rbMI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CBQQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=William%20Hodgins%20Biggar&f=false. Page 286. Retrieved 2009-10-27.

Tammy. "Descendants of Herbert Biggar". http://www.angelfire.com/sc3/biggar/herbert.html. Retrieved 2009-10-27.


"William Hodgins Biggar". Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. April 10, 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Hodgins_Biggar&oldid=204634304. Retrieved 2009-10-27.

Wodrow, Robert (1830) (Digistied by Google Books on 2008-09-14). The history of the sufferings of the church of Scotland, from the restoration to the revolution, Volume 2. Blackie. http://books.google.ca/books?id=9GUNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=herbert+biggar+king&source=bl&ots=UFh7bBYJes&sig=gimT1_kAjUN_KBSz6MZtDRNe3Gk&hl=en&ei=SY3nSrioBZWwMKa5iZsI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=biggar&f=false. Retrieved 2009-10-27.